No R-21 Films In Your Neighbourhood

Oh come on... they really need to upgrade their thinking. Between girls posting their semi-nude photos on Facebook to people posting their sex videos on the net plus pornography that is readily available online, who still want to spend $8 to go to the cinema to catch a R-21 film? Youngsters nowadays are getting more daring and open as before. Restricting the general media is no longer an effective way to control them anymore.

Another Victim to Hollywood Remakes

Why can't Hollywood just leave a brilliant movie alone? Every nice movies that is not out from Hollywood will be remake by them, often soup up with bigger budgets, bigger effects and over the top actions. And ever so often it failed to recreate the magic from the original due to the remaking. We have Ring from Japan, Infernal Affairs from Hong Kong (otherwise known as The Departed) and Funny Games from Austria. Of the three mentioned, only The Departed made it winning the Oscar for Best Picture.

Well, the latest victim of Hollywood remakes is Swedish movie, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which is a film adaptation of the award-winning crime novel by Swedish author and journalist Stieg Larsson. I have the liberty to watch the Swedish version of the film and I say it is a really compelling movie. So when I found out in the news that Mr Hollywood is going to remake it, with current Mr Bond, Daniel Criag, as Mikael Blomkivst, I was quite annoyed. Another good movie ruined by Hollywood.

Luckily, the original movie was shown in the theatres here last month. So I guess the audience can compare the two styles. I wonder who will play Lisbeth Salander in the Hollywood remake as Noomi Rapace gave a powerful performance in the original.

P.S. I just found out that Rooney Mara would play the role of Lisbeth Salander. Yeah, I have the same reaction as you. Rooney who? The only Rooney I know is playing football for Manchester United. :P

P.S.2: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, like the book, is part of a trilogy. The second and third films, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest, are out and I have yet to find time to watch them.

I Can You Cannot

I realize that we set one set of rules for us and another for others. How many times we often criticize people for their actions, yet when the situation is turned the other way, we will find a lot of excuses to justify it.

Take example, when we see people run after the bus, we will question the reason for it since the next bus should be 10 mins behind. Yet, we did it ourselves when faced with the same situation, with excuses like late for appointment or rushing for time lah.

This is just one of many situations where we so called I can you cannot principle. This makes me think, does this makes us some sort of hypocrite.

Laugh Out Loud Dylan

For 1min & 12 sec, all my worries and frustration seems to disappear

Toothpick Stylus

Saw an uncle using an iPhone on my way back to office after lunch. Nothing special except that he is using a toothpick to tab on his phone.

Though I am impressed by the uncle innovation in using a toothpick as a stylus, but don't he know that the iPhone is capacitive touchscreen? You don't need a stylus to use it. Maybe he have difficulty in touching the buttons, but I sure hope he is not using an used toothpick. Eww...

Journey of Parenthood: Yours Or Mine

The boys are coming to five months old and every day we see sides of them that relate to us. Whenever they show some behavior, Angie and I will start pointing fingers at the other, happily accusing the behavior came from the other party.

Dylan likes to whine and cry like mommy. Aiden is like Pa-Pa, a shy boy and likes to play by himself. Dylan snores loudly like Pa-Pa while Aiden is a sleepy head, like Mummy, sleeps all over his bed at night.

It's a way to relate them to us, to prove that they are our own. Till now, we still have a hard time believing these two cute buns (we just name them Fishball n Sotong Ball, guess why? :p) are our sons. They brought us so much joy with equal amount of tiredness, but all those tiredness seems to fade away whenever you call them out and they smile at you. We will continue to observe those little silly signs that relate them to us, "yours or mine" they will nevertheless be our precious sons.

IOS 4.1: Runs Faster For iPhone 3G

It's about time Apple look into their IOS 4 software that cause my iPhone 3G performance to slow down to a snail pace. I hope the upcoming IOS4.1 to be released on 8 Sept will meet what they claims. Was contemplating whether to factory default my phone in hope that it will resolve the lagging problem. Now I will just bare with it for a few more days.

Updated (13 Sept 2010): Just restore and update my iPhone 3G to IOS4.1. No hair pulling incidents occur. Still did not fix the black patch over some of my camera taken photos. Performance seems to be smoother & faster. Maybe it is just my imagination. Will keep monitoring.

Aiden Chatting With Mummy

Didi just love to chat with his Mummy ^_^

The Problem With United Transfer Policy.

Though i still support the club very much, i am a bit disappointed with the transfer policy lately the club is employing. What's with the value in the market thing? Buying only players below age 25? They totally redefine the meaning in value in the market. What's the point of buying young players to develop when they hardly help to support a title charge? Are we really going to play Scholes and Giggs till they are 40?

We spent 10 mil on Smalling, who struggle even to play in our reserves, yet not willing to pay the same amount for established players. My colleagues claim that maybe the salary is the issue between paying the same amount for an established player versus for a young one whose salary cost much lesser. But we really need to improve the quality of the backup players in our squad, more importantly the creativity. The whole transfer policy makes me wonder, do we really have money to buy big players?

Finally, when you thought of last season, though we lost out by a point but it partially due to Chelsea cock up at critical moments (7 losses doesn't consider to be a strong title charge) and Rooney having a fantastic season. If Chelsea pull their socks up or Roony not playing as well as last season, we can forget about kicking Liverpool off the f*&king perch this season.

Hope I will be proven wrong comes May.

Aiden Learning to Flip

Dylan has started flipping over by himself and his neck is getting stronger. As for Aiden, he is still lagging behind, so we are a bit concern about his development. But man how wrong he has proven to us. Angie went to NTUC and I play with Aiden while the maid looks after Dylan.

The little boy kept trying to flip over himself. He tried 4 to 5 times without any success, every time rolling back to his back. All these time, he did not cry nor throw tantrums. He just kept going and going with me beside him encouraging him. It's like as if my encouragement gave him strength. When he finally succeeded, you can see the sense of joy on his face. I am so touch and proud of him.

Oh, now that he found the trick to flipping, he has been doing it nonstop. We have to have someone to jaga Him and Dylan to make sure they dun hurt themselves.

Boiled Ginger Coke

First heard of this strange concoction while reading Sheylara's Changpin trip, where you contracted a terrible flu. Did a research and found that it is a common remedy used in Hong Kong to treat the common flu. Will sure try this next time I had a flu attack.

Distance / Time = Speed

"the Public Transport Council (PTC) revealed on Thursday that travelling time - and not just distance - is also used to charge train commuters under Singapore's distance-based fares system."

Huh? So is it a distance based fare or time based fare? Why call it distance based fare when time factor is taken into consideration? So I expect the petrol or maintenance part of the equation will take effect at a later date lah. Hmmm... probably after the elections.

Interview Woes

For me, going for a job interview is a frightening experience and it is even worse when it a job interview with a knowledge test. I don't know is it my low confidence or a previous bad experience, I am scared that I will screw up and get reprimand by the interviewer.

I just went for an interview recently and was put through a 45 mins technical test follow by another one and a half hour of "interrogation" where I was ask to explain how the I2C protocol works. This is the 21st century and I don't understand why people still uses technical test during an interview. Information is readily available on the net, so what if I know what a linked list is or cab recite I2C protocol. I believe that a person working experience, character and attitude is more important.

And don't they know there is a thing call the Smartphone? I can search for the answers for the questions using my iPhone. (Yes I did that), which make the whole test process redundant. This is one reason why I don't quite like to go for interviews especially the ones which involved technical test.

Seen Or Heard

You will never read or heard this on Channel News Asia or Straits Times. All these are in the net where the government has no way to censure it

1. Flood News Blackout
So flooding is considered a norm in Singapore so much so that CNA or ST dun even bother to report them. Maybe they just want to cover all negative news before the YOG. Rather than feeling moody about the flood at Jalan Besar, this guy took the opportunity to kayak around. Sure save the trip to the beach. To add further insult, the PUB chairman is awarded the National Day award of the Distinguished Service Order, for solving Singapore’s perennial flood problems! The committee that decide the awards must be living in a hole for the past few months.


2. The Army Serve Better Food Than This
Wah! And I thought the food they serve during my national service was bad. This is the food, provided by official caterer Singapore Food Industries (SFI), for the YOG volunteers in return for the volunteering work they provided. If it wasn't for the massive outcry in cyberspace, SFI will not even bother about it and the poor volunteers will still be eating this (Not as if there is much improvement after that). No sauce, no chilly, I spend $2.70 to buy their own mixed vegetable rice also better than this. Not that we are choosy, but at least show some respect to these volunteers who sacrifice their time to help out. On the contrary, athletes and officials were given three daily buffet meals befitting of a king by SFI. As the Cantonese says, really bor dou chu mean.

Dylan Snoring In His Sleep

Turn up the volume to listen. Like father, like son... :P

I Hate YOG

The recent Youth Olympic Games (YOG or "why orgy" as chillycraps puts it) is making me sick. Everywhere I go, everywhere I turn to, I am flush with YOG news, banners and images. The way the government is going out its way to make it a success is a little too much. All the things they do to accommodate the athletes at the expense of inconvenience to the Singaporeans are pissing us off. And they still question the lack of support for YOG. All the things the MIW did to please the foreigners only will make us hate YOG more and boycott it. In fact, there is a "I Hate YOG" Facebook group, that is growing. Goes to show how much we hated it.

When they exceed the initial budget of $105 million for the YOG, did anyone in government raise any issues? No! They just continue to spend and spend until it hits $387 million, then tell us that they are "a bit naive with our initial estimates" WTF!

I feel that we are just being made used by the IOC to find out if a Youth Olympic is feasible. The truth is as long as the Singapore government tries to organize any big events at the expense of its people, it can never be as successful as it can be without the support of its people. No matter how they want to put it, the YOG is considered a failure before it has even begin. Everyone in the world knows it, just that no one in the government wants to admit it.

Updated: By the way, someone found this news article. According to PM Lee in 2007, he has stated that our nation "may not be ready in 2010 because we're just building the Sports Hub. There will be time and opportunities later." In other words, he feel that Singapore is not ready to host such the YOG. Why the turn around along the way and end up with this mess?

Going For A Dip

The boys try out their new swimming pool for the first time ^_^.

Click on photo below for more photos

Is This All A Dream?

Send my car for servicing over the weekend and went to catch the movie Inception rather than waiting aimlessly.

Man, the movie is really incredible. It's a breath of fresh air from all the sequels, remakes and slasher movies that populate the cinemas these days.

I will not dwell into talking what is the story about, as google will do that. Christopher Nolan truly defines himself as THE great director of recent times. There was never a bored moment in the film and explanations are clear and well integrated in the storyline, exploring the realm of sub-conscious manipulation.

The whole experience will be even better if I have not went to read the spoiler for the movie earlier. It kinda reduces the gloss, as I knew what is going to happen next :( Nevertheless, I believe Inception will have the same impact like how The Matrix did minus the cheem theories and philosophies.

The "Increase Price" Solution Again

Once again, our first world government solved problems by increasing the cost and passing that cost to us. Is that the best they can do? Can't they be more creative? No enough parking lots for residents with season parking tickets? Increase the price of overnight parking coupons. Roads too congested? Increase ERP.

They still don't get it, people will still pay for it and the problem will still persist. It makes no difference. Only thing that changes are the wallets of the government will get bigger and our burden will become heavier.

My Heart Sunk When I Saw This

This link at the end of the post will show some disturbing pictures especially if you are a dog lover. The relating of the poor animal's plight to that of Singaporeans' is of little importance.

My heart is filled with sadness and rage when I read the news below. I cannot comprehend what drive a man to do such sick and evil acts to perform such brutality on an innocent being. The only comforting thought from the story is that the poor dog, Xi-Xi, at least has passed away peacefully and found comfort in the heavens and no longer has to go through the pain he is suffering. As for the bastard or bastards who inflict the pain on the poor dog, I hope what you did to Xi-Xi is bestowed on to you when you reach hell on the 18th level. For retribution will come, it's just a matter of time, be it to you or your loved ones.

There was a little dog in Foshan [Guangdong province] named Xi Xi whose fate (of being brutally abused) have caused the strongest and meanest character of men to buckle and weep.

When I first saw Xi Xi, his two eyes were gouged out, his genitals were cut off, and his body was covered with holes cut with knives. Yet Xi Xi still tenaciously / tediously supported his seriously injured body roaming around the neighborhood for food. No one knew who tortured the poor Xi Xi nor did anyone gave food to him.

A kind volunteer called the city’s officials and Xi Xi was sent to an Animal Hospital for treatment. While Xi Xi was being taken to the Animal Hospital, he desperately bit at the rope that tied him, probably because Xi Xi was afraid of being hurt again. This goes to prove how strong Xi Xi’s will to live is.

After examination by the Vets, Xi Xi suffered external injuries all over his body from knifing abuse, and because he did not receive immediate medical attention, his wounds were infected and leukemia developed, causing white blood tumors in his body.

Further observation by the vet found that it is very exerting and painful for Xi Xi to urinate and defecate, leading to a part of his intestines being expelled during passing motion.

Apart from that, Xi Xi keeps retreating to dark corners. Those who have raised pets and have some experience will know that this is what dogs (and other animals) do when they know they are about to die and want to find a peaceful place to leave the world, and leave Xi Xi eventually did after 2 days at the Animal Hospital. Many of our hearts died with Xi Xi that fateful day.

Link